PERIPHERY MONITORING DEVICE FOR WORK MACHINE
There is provided a device that enables an operator of a work machine to recognize whether or not an object exists in the periphery of the work machine with an appropriate amount of information from the viewpoint of avoiding a reduction in focus of the operator of the work machine. When the state of operation of an operation device 400 performed by an operator is a “first operation state”, and an object exists in a target space around a work machine 200, an alarm is output in a “first mode”. When the state of operation of the operation device 400 performed by the operator is a “second operation state”, and an object exists in the target space around the work machine 200, an alarm is output in a “second mode” in which a larger amount of information is provided than in the “first mode”.
The present invention relates to a device that monitors the periphery of a work machine.
BACKGROUND ARTA technique has been proposed in which in order to allow an operator of a work machine to intuitively identify the position of a person existing around the work machine, when a person is determined to exist in one monitoring space (for example, a space right beside the work machine), an alarm is output from one alarm output unit (for example, a right alarm output unit in a cab) corresponding to the one monitoring space, and when a person is determined to exist in another monitoring space (for example, a space behind the work machine), an alarm is output from another alarm output unit (for example, a rear alarm output unit in the cab) corresponding to the another monitoring space (for example, refer to Patent Literature 1).
CITATION LIST Patent LiteraturePatent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2018-093501
SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical ProblemHowever, when the amount of alarm information is too large, the large amount of alarm information may lead to a reduction in focus of the operator of the work machine on alarms and the distraction of attention to the alarms.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a device that enables an operator of a work machine to recognize whether or not an object is present in the periphery of the work machine with an appropriate amount of information from the viewpoint of avoiding a reduction in focus of the operator of the work machine.
Solution to ProblemAccording to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a periphery monitoring device for a work machine including: a first detection element configured to detect a state of operation of an operation device performed by an operator to operate a work machine; a second detection element configured to detect whether or not an object exists in a target space around the work machine; a plurality of output devices that is disposed in an operation space of the work machine to output an alarm to the operator; and a control element configured to cause the output device to output an alarm in a first mode when the first detection element detects a first operation state as the state of operation of the operation device and the second detection element detects that the object exists in the target space, and cause the output device to output an alarm in a second mode, in which a larger amount of information is provided than in the first mode, when the first detection element detects a second operation state, which is different from the first operation state, as the state of operation of the operation device and the second detection element detects that the object exists in the target space.
(Configuration)
A periphery monitoring device 100 for a work machine as one embodiment of the present invention illustrated in
The work machine 200 is, for example, a crawler excavator (construction machine), and as illustrated in
The work attachment 240 includes a boom 241 that is derrickably mounted on the upper turning body 220, an arm 243 that is rotatably connected to a tip of the boom 241, and a bucket 245 that is rotatably connected to a tip of the arm 243. A boom cylinder 242, an arm cylinder 244, and a bucket cylinder 246 which includes respective expandable hydraulic cylinders are mounted in the work attachment 240.
The boom cylinder 242 intervenes between the boom 241 and the upper turning body 220 such that the boom cylinder 242 receives the supply of a hydraulic oil to expand and thus rotates the boom 241 in a derricking direction. The arm cylinder 244 intervenes between the arm 243 and the boom 241 such that the arm cylinder 244 receives the supply of the hydraulic oil to expand and thus rotates the arm 243 around a horizontal axis with respect to the boom 241. The bucket cylinder 246 intervenes between the bucket 245 and the arm 243 such that the bucket cylinder 246 receives the supply of the hydraulic oil to expand and thus rotates the bucket 245 around the horizontal axis with respect to the arm 243.
The operation device 400 includes a traveling operation device, a turning operation device, a boom operation device, an arm operation device, and a bucket operation device. Each operation device includes an operation lever that receives a rotation operation. The operation lever (traveling lever) of the traveling operation device is operated to cause the lower traveling body 210 to operate. The traveling lever may also serve as a traveling pedal. For example, the traveling pedal may be provided in such a way as to be fixed to a base portion or a lower end portion of the traveling lever. The operation lever (turning lever) of the turning operation device is operated to cause a hydraulic turning motor, which forms the turning mechanism 230, to operate. The operation lever (boom lever) of the boom operation device is operated to cause the boom cylinder 242 to operate. The operation lever (arm lever) of the arm operation device is operated to cause the arm cylinder 244 to operate. The operation lever (bucket lever) of the bucket operation device is operated to cause the bucket cylinder 246 to operate. The operation device 400 includes a wireless communication device that wirelessly communicates with an actual machine side wireless communication device mounted in the work machine 200.
The operation levers forming the operation device 400 are provided around a seat 402 in which an operator sits in a remote operation room. For example, as illustrated in
The cab 222 is provided with actual machine side operation levers corresponding to the operation levers provided in the remote operation room, and a drive mechanism or a robot that receives a signal corresponding to an operation mode of each operation lever from the remote operation room to operate the actual machine side operation levers based on the received signal. The actual machine side operation levers may be directly operated by an operator existing in the cab 222. Namely, the operation device 400 includes the actual machine side operation lever and a remote control valve that outputs a pilot pressure having a magnitude corresponding to the operation amount of the actual machine side operation lever from a port corresponding to an operation direction. In this case, the operation device 400 may be configured to be able to communicate with the work machine 200 in a wired manner instead of a wireless manner.
One operation levers may also serve as a plurality of operation levers. For example, a right operation lever 420 provided in front of a right frame of the seat 402 illustrated in
The first detection element 111 detects the state of operation of the operation device 400 performed by an operator to operate the work machine 200. For example, the first detection element 111 includes a sensor that outputs a signal corresponding to the deformation amount or the displacement amount of a biasing mechanism including a spring or an elastic member that acts to return the operation lever to the original position and posture corresponding to an operation amount of 0, and an arithmetic processing unit that estimates whether or not the boom, the arm, the bucket, and the like are operated, in addition to estimating whether or not the turning lever is operated based on the output signal of the sensor to cause the upper turning body 220 to turn counterclockwise at a speed when viewed from above.
The first detection element 111 may include a pilot pressure sensor that outputs a signal corresponding to a pilot pressure corresponding to the operation amount of each actual machine side operation lever, and an arithmetic processing unit that estimates whether or not the boom, the arm, the bucket, and the like are operated, in addition to estimating whether or not the turning lever is operated based on the output signal of the pilot pressure sensor to cause the upper turning body 220 to turn counterclockwise at a speed when viewed from above.
The second detection element 112 detects the position of an object existing around the work machine 200. The second detection element 112 includes a right sensor C1, a front sensor C2, a left sensor C3, and a rear sensor C4 that are disposed on right, front, left, and rear sides of the upper turning body 220, respectively, and an arithmetic processing unit that specifies the real spatial position of an object in a work machine coordinate system (X, Y, Z) (refer to
The three-dimensional position of an object existing at a pixel position in each sensor coordinate system is determined based on the pixel position and a pixel value (distance) in a three-dimensional distance image obtained by each of the sensors C1 to C4. The three-dimensional position of the object in the work machine coordinate system is obtained according to a coordinate transformation operator (rotation matrix or quaternion), which represents the position and the posture of each of the sensors C1 to C4 in the work machine coordinate system, based on the three-dimensional position of the object in each sensor coordinate system.
The sensors C1 to C4 acquire distance images of objects existing in a right detection target space A1, a front detection target space A2, a left detection target space A3, and a rear detection target space A4 illustrated in
For example, when the upper turning body 220 turns counterclockwise around a Z-axis, the upper turning body 220 has a high possibility of coming into contact with objects existing in spaces that are diagonally left in front of and diagonally right behind the upper turning body 220 (refer to
In view of the above possibilities, in the present embodiment, as illustrated in
A diagonally right front output device 131, a front output device 132, a diagonally left front output device 133, a diagonally left rear output device 134, a rear output device 135, and a diagonally right rear output device 136 are disposed on a diagonally right front side, a front side, a diagonally left front side, a diagonally left rear side, a rear side, and a diagonally right rear side with reference to a sitting portion of the seat 402 (place where an operator stays), respectively, in which the operator sits in the remote operation room (or the internal space of the cab 222) which is an operation space of the work machine 200, such that the plurality of output devices 130 corresponds to the directions of a plurality of the respective target spaces S1 to S6 with reference to the work machine 200. The output devices 131 to 133 each include, for example, an image output device such as a display and an audio output device such as a speaker, and output an alarm to the operator by image and audio. The output devices 134 to 136 each include, for example, an audio output device such as a speaker, and output an alarm to the operator by audio.
When the first detection element 111 detects a first operation state as the state of operation of the operation device 400, and the second detection element 112 detects that an object exists in any of the target spaces Al to A4, the control element 120 causes the output device 130 to output an alarm in a first mode. When the first detection element 111 detects a second operation state different from the first operation state, as the state of operation of the operation device 400, and the second detection element 112 detects that an object exists in any of the target spaces Al to A4, the control element 120 causes the output device 130 to output an alarm in a second mode in which a larger amount of information is provided than in the first mode.
The control element 120 includes an arithmetic processing unit (a single-core processor, a multi-core processor, or a processor core forming the same), and reads out necessary data and software from a storage device such as a memory, and executes arithmetic processing on the data as a target according to the software to output the result of the arithmetic processing.
(Function)
The function of the periphery monitoring device 100 for a work machine having the above configuration will be described.
The first detection element 111 detects the state of operation of the operation device 400 performed by an operator to operate the work machine 200 (
The control element 120 determines which of the “first operation state”, “the second operation state”, and “other operation state” is the operation state detected by the first detection element 111 (
When the operation state detected by the first detection element 111 is determined to be the “first operation state” (
When the flag f is set to “1” or “2”, the control element 120 determines whether or not the target space includes the position of the object detected by the second detection element 112 (
When the position of the object is determined to be not included in the target space (
When the flag f is 1 (
When the flag f is 2 (
(Effects)
According to the periphery monitoring device for a work machine of the present invention, when the state of operation of the operation device 400 performed by an operator is the “first operation state”, and an object exists in a target space around the work machine 200, an alarm is output in the first mode (
Accordingly, while avoiding or suppressing a reduction in focus of the operator of the work machine 200 by the amount of a reduction in amount of alarm information when the state of operation of the operation device 400 performed by the operator is the “first operation state” as compared to the amount of alarm information when the state of operation of the operation device 400 performed by the operator is the “second operation state”, it is possible to cause the operator of the work machine 200 to recognize whether or not an object exists in the periphery of the work machine 200.
(Other Embodiments of Present Invention)
In STEP 002, the operation state may be determined by determining the work mode of the work machine 200.
When the work machine 200 performs work such as excavating, loading, leveling, or turning, if the machine speed of the work machine 200 is high, it is not preferable that the degree of attention is lowered. On the other hand, when the movement speed of the work machine 200 is low, an emergency can be dealt with sufficiently even if the degree of attention is lowered. For example, since the work machine 200 operates relatively slowly in the work of loading the work machine 200 on a trailer, in the work of exchanging the bucket of the work machine 200, in the parking state of the work machine 200, or the like, it may be enough to output an alarm in the first mode instead of outputting an alarm in the second mode. In such a case, whether or not the operation state is the “first operation state” can be detected by detecting the work state.
In STEP 002, the determination of the operation state may include the determination of a repeated operation. For example, when the work of loading excavated earth and sand into a dump truck or the like is repeated, an alarm for an obstacle or the like in the periphery is output each time. Since an operator has already recognized an obstacle and the like in the vicinity when repeatedly performing work, it may be enough to output an alarm in the first mode. Therefore, when the repeated operation is determined as an operation state, the operation state can be detected as the “first operation state”. In this case, a function may be installed by which whether to change the mode of an alarm from the second mode to the first mode can be selected when the repeated operation is detected. In a configuration in which for example, “The same object has been continuously detected. Does the detection want to be cancelled?” can be displayed on a display device or the like in the operation room of the work machine 200, and which of “Yes” and “No” an operator can be asked to select to change the mode of an alarm from the second mode to the first mode, when the operator can recognize what obstacle exists, the operator can select “Yes” to change the mode of an alarm to the first mode, or the operator can select “No” to maintain the second mode of an alarm. In addition, when a new obstacle is detected during repeated work, an alarm may be output in the second mode.
The alarm may differ depending on the detected object. The tone of an alarm sound may be changed depending on the nature of an object, for example, footsteps if the object is a person, an engine sound if the object is a truck, or a wall hitting sound if the object is a wall.
The control element 120 may cause the output device 130 to output an alarm in the second mode, in which a larger amount of information is provided than in the first mode, according to the object detected by the second detection element 112. According to the periphery monitoring device for a work machine having the configuration, an alarm for an object to which attention wants to be paid can be reliably output by outputting an alarm in the second mode, in which a large amount of information is provided, according to the object.
The alarm may be changed according to a change in status of the detected object. For example, in a case where the object is a moving object such as a truck, when the moving object is stopped, an alarm is output in the first mode, and when the moving object moves, the mode of an alarm can be changed to the second mode to raise the degree of attention.
Even if the position of an object is determined to be included in the target space (
In this case, the work machine 200 includes means for detecting a person (example: a device that extracts a feature quantity from a camera image to detect a person) in addition to means for detecting an object. An alarm related to information about particularly a person for which the degree of attention wants to be raised can be output in the second mode, in which a large amount of information is provided, by causing the device to act as described above.
In the embodiment, the flow is such that when the determination in STEP 010 is the other operation state, an alarm is not output; however, an alarm may be output in the first or second mode.
Each of a plurality of annular spaces which surrounds a reference point or a reference axis of the work machine 200 in a multi-fold manner may be defined to overlap any of the plurality of target spaces, and the output mode of an alarm to be output from the output device 130 may be controlled such that among the plurality of annular spaces, the closer an annular space in which an object exists is to the reference point, the higher the level (ease to recognize or the level of calling attention) of the alarm is.
As illustrated in
For example, the output mode of an alarm may be controlled such that even if the mode of a change in relative position of an object with respect to the work machine determined by time series of the position of the object is the same, the output level of the alarm is higher when the position of the object is included in the annular region R13 than when the position of the object is included in the annular region R14.
DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS100: periphery monitoring device for work machine
111: first detection element
112: second detection element
120: control element
130: output device
131: diagonally right front output device
132: front output device
133: diagonally left front output device
134: diagonally left rear output device
135: rear output device
136: diagonally right rear output device
200: work machine
400: operation device
402: seat (place where operator stays)
A1: right detection target space
A2: front detection target space
A3: left detection target space
A4: rear detection target space
C1: right sensor
C2: front sensor
C3: left sensor
C4: rear sensor
S1: diagonally right front target space
S2: front target space
S3: diagonally left front target space
S4: diagonally left rear target space
S5: rear target space
S6: diagonally right rear target space
Claims
1. A periphery monitoring device for a work machine comprising:
- a first detection element configured to detect a state of operation of an operation device performed by an operator to operate a work machine;
- a second detection element configured to detect whether or not an object exists in a target space around the work machine;
- a plurality of output devices that is disposed in an operation space of the work machine to output an alarm to the operator; and
- a control element configured to cause the output device to output an alarm in a first mode when the first detection element detects a first operation state as the state of operation of the operation device and the second detection element detects that the object exists in the target space, and cause the output device to output an alarm in a second mode, in which a larger amount of information is provided than in the first mode, when the first detection element detects a second operation state, which is different from the first operation state, as the state of operation of the operation device and the second detection element detects that the object exists in the target space.
2. The periphery monitoring device for a work machine according to claim 1,
- wherein the first operation state is detected according to a work mode of the work machine.
3. The periphery monitoring device for a work machine according to claim 1,
- wherein the first operation state includes a state in which a repeated work operation of the operation device is detected.
4. The periphery monitoring device for a work machine according to claim 1,
- wherein the control element causes the output device to output an alarm in the second mode, in which a larger amount of information is provided than in the first mode, according to the object detected by the second detection element.
5. The periphery monitoring device for a work machine according to claim 1,
- wherein when the object detected by the second detection element is a person, the control element causes the output device to output an alarm in the second mode in which a larger amount of information is provided than in the first mode.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 19, 2019
Publication Date: Apr 7, 2022
Inventors: Hitoshi SASAKI (HIROSHIMA), Yoichiro YAMAZAKI (HIROSHIMA), Seiji SAIKI (HIROSHIMA)
Application Number: 17/420,577